Field of the Disclosure
The invention relates to blood processing systems. More particularly, the invention relates to systems and methods for monitoring and correcting defects in a disposable fluid flow circuit or blood processing system and installation errors.
Description of Related Art
Various blood processing systems now make it possible to collect particular blood constituents, instead of whole blood, from a blood source such as, but not limited to, a container of previously collected blood or other living or non-living source. Typically, in such systems, whole blood is drawn from a blood source, the particular blood component or constituent is separated, removed, and collected, and the remaining blood constituents are returned to the blood source. Removing only particular constituents is advantageous when the blood source is a human donor, because potentially less time is needed for the donor's body to return to pre-donation levels, and donations can be made at more frequent intervals than when whole blood is collected. This increases the overall supply of blood constituents, such as plasma and platelets, made available for transfer and/or therapeutic treatment.
Whole blood is typically separated into its constituents (e.g., red cells, platelets, and plasma) through centrifugation, such as in the AMICUS® separator from Fenwal, Inc. of Lake Zurich, Ill., which is an affiliate or Fresenius Kabi AG or Bad Homburg, Germany, or other centrifugal separation devices, or a spinning membrane-type separator, such as the AUTOPHERESIS-C® and AURORA® devices from Fenwal, Inc.
Typically, a disposable fluid flow circuit is provided for use in combination with a durable, reusable blood processing system. The fluid flow circuit includes a plurality of components (e.g., fluid storage bags and separation chambers) connected by tubing lines, which must be properly installed onto the blood processing system. Known systems may include an alert or alarm system that is programmed to generate an alert or alarm when there is a problem with the blood processing system or fluid flow circuit (e.g., if it has been improperly installed onto the blood processing system), but there remains room for improvement in such alarm systems and the ways in which an improperly installed or defective fluid separation system event may be resolved.